Eyewitness Eyewitness Titanic 001_ew_titanic.inddUS_001_ew_titanic.indd 1 1 29/8/0811/9/08 11:04:4614:45:39 Stateroom luggage label Crow’s nest telephone key Model of the Titanic Gilt light fixture 002-003_ew_titanic.inddUS_002-003_ew_titanic.indd 2 2 29/8/0811/9/08 11:54:3614:45:44 Eyewitness First-class bathtub faucets Titanic Bell from crow’s nest Written by SIMON ADAMS Life ring Morse-code transmitter Signaling lamp DK Publishing 002-003_ew_titanic.inddUS_002-003_ew_titanic.indd 3 3 29/8/0811/9/08 11:54:4014:45:46 LONDON, NEW YORK, Compass head MELBOURNE, MUNICH, AND DELHI Logometer Project editor Melanie Halton Art editor Mark Regardsoe Porthole Designer Polly Appleton Senior managing editor Linda Martin Senior managing art editor Julia Harris Production Kate Oliver Picture researcher Claire Taylor DTP Designer Andrew O’Brien R E Consultants Ted Turner, Simon Adams Editorial Kitty Blount, Sarah Phillips, Jayne Miller Design Andrew Nash, Edward Kinsey Managing editor Camilla Hallinan Managing art editors Jane Thomas, Owen Peyton Jones Memorial badge Art director Martin Wilson Associate publisher Andrew Macintyre Production editors Jenny Jacoby, Siu Yin Ho, Laragh Kedwell Production controllers Jen Lockwood, Pip Tinsley Picture research Bridget Tilly, Deborah Pownall, Myriam Megharbi U.S. editorial Elizabeth Hester, Beth Sutinis U.S. design and DTP Dirk Kaufman, Milos Orlovic U.S. production Chris Avgherinos This Eyewitness ® Guide has been conceived by Dorling Kindersley Limited and Editions Gallimard First published in the United States in 1999 This revised edition published in 2004, 2009 by DK Publishing, 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York, 10014 Copyright © 1999, © 2004, © 2009 Dorling Kindersley Limited 09 10 11 12 13 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 ED773 – 02/09 All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner. Published in Great Britain by Dorling Kindersley Limited. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. ISBN 978-0-7566-5036-0 (HC); 978-0-7566-0733-3 (ALB) Color reproduction by Colourscan, Singapore Printed by Toppan Co., (Shenzen) Ltd., China Discover more at Captain Smith Compass stand 004-005_ew_titanic.inddUS_004-005_ew_titanic.indd 4 4 10/11/0829/8/08 11:05:2914:11:50 Contents 6 Overseas travel 8 Building the Titanic White Star Line 10 playing cards Fast and “unsinkable”? 12 42 RMS Titanic Racing to the rescue 16 44 Fine fixtures Awaiting news 18 46 Captain and crew Lost and found 20 48 Predicting the tragedy Lessons learned 22 50 Maiden voyage End of an era 24 52 First-class travel Search and discovery 26 54 Second-class travel Pieces of the puzzle 28 56 Third-class travel Never-ending story 30 58 Atlantic crossing Did you know? 32 60 A deadly collision Timeline 34 62 To the lifeboats Find out more 36 64 Slowly sinking Glossary 38 70 The final moments Index 40 72 Heroes and heroines Acknowledgments 004-005_ew_titanic.inddUS_004-005_ew_titanic.indd 5 5 29/8/0811/9/08 11:05:3914:46:01 Overseas travel I , ships took weeks, if not months, to travel between continents, and passengers were as likely to die from disease as they were to be RED STAR LINE One of the many lines that ran steamships shipwrecked or drowned. The across the Atlantic, the Red Star Line of development of large, fast, and relatively Belgium was bought by John Pierpont Morgan in 1902 and became part of the safe steamships during the mid-1800s International Mercantile Marine Company, Statue of transformed travel by sea, allowing people which also owned the White Star Line, soon Liberty to build the Titanic. overlooks to cross the ocean faster and more cheaply New York Harbor than ever before. Shipyards built bigger and faster passenger ships—now called liners, after the shipping lines they were built for—and furnished them in great luxury to attract high-paying, first-class passengers. It was into this competitive world that the Titanic was launched. LIBERTY BECKONS For many steerage (third-class) passengers on board the North Atlantic liners, theirs was a SIRIUS one-way journey, away from The first steamship to cross the Atlantic entirely Mast to take sails Hull measured the poverty and oppression of under steam power was the Sirius, a 783-ton if engine failed 207 ft (63 m) Europe to start a new life in the (711-metric ton) paddle steamer built in Glasgow, “New World”—the Americas. Scotland, in 1836. The Sirius left London on March Between 1900 and 1914, 28, 1838, for Queenstown, Ireland, where it took more than 12 million people on 40 passengers and 503 tons (457 metric tons) immigrated in this way. By 1914, of coal. It arrived in New York on April 22 after one-third of the United States’ an eventful 18-day crossing, during which total population of 92 million the crew was forced to burn cabin was made up of immigrants. furniture and the emergency mast when the ship ran short of coal. Six masts carried 58,501 sq ft (5,435 sq m) of sail Paddle wheels driven by steam engine GREAT EASTERN Five times larger than any existing ship, the Great Eastern was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806–1859), the greatest engineer of his time. Carrying 13,440 tons (12,193 metric tons) of coal, the ship could take 4,000 passengers all the way to Australia without refueling. But passengers refused to travel in such a large vessel and, in 1863, three years after its maiden voyage, the Great Eastern became a cable- laying ship. Great Eastern was 682 ft (208 m) long, 118 ft (36 m) wide, and weighed 21,186 Each paddle wheel was tons (19,220 metric tons) 57 ft (17.5 m) in diameter 6 006-007_ew_titanic.inddUS_006-007_ew_titanic.indd 6 6 29/8/081/9/08 11:37:2011:06:04 70,000-hp turbines sent out exhaust fumes First-class First-class lounge Bridge through three funnels promenade and music room decks Veranda café Second-class lounge Observation room MAURETANIA The Mauretania was Along with its sister ship, the Lusitania, the Mauretania was the pride of the 748 ft (228 m) long and Cunard Line (below left). The Mauretania was equipped with four giant weighed 35,000 tons steam turbines, a revolutionary new engine capable of generating (32,000 metric tons) 75 percent more power than the equivalent engine used in the Titanic. As a result, on its maiden voyage in 1907, the Mauretania set a new speed record for crossing the Atlantic—four days and 19 hours, at an average speed of 27.4 knots (31.5 mph/50.7 kph)—a record unchallenged until 1929. THE WHITE STAR LINE Founded in 1871 by Liverpool Ornate shipowner Thomas Ismay, the marble White Star Line grew from a pillars bankrupt fleet of clipper ships operating between Britain and Australia. The Belfast shipyard Harland and Wolff won the contract to build every new White Star ship. THE CUNARD LINE Samuel Cunard ran a successful shipping business in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in Canada, with his brother Joseph before establishing a shipping line to carry mail from England to Canada in 1839. The Cunard Line soon established itself as the major North Atlantic shipping line, and a direct rival to White Star. “Everything has been done in regard to the furniture and fittings to LUXURY LINERS SHIPPING TYCOON No expense was spared in decorating the Atlantic liners. For The US banker, industrialist, make the first-class first-class passengers, the public rooms and staterooms steel magnate, and railroad (cabins) were furnished in a variety of styles drawn from owner John Pierpont Morgan accommodation more history, often emulating great country houses in their lavish was one of the richest men of use of hardwoods, marble, and gilt. For second-class his era. In 1902 he bought up a than equal to that passengers, the rooms were more than adequately furnished, number of European shipping provided in the finest while many third-class passengers encountered good lines to create a vast and sanitation and table linen for the first time in their lives. prosperous shipping firm— hotels on shore.” the International Mercantile Marine Company—that EXTRACT FROM THE SHIPBUILDER dominated shipping across the North Atlantic Ocean. 7 006-007_ew_titanic.inddUS_006-007_ew_titanic.indd 7 7 29/8/081/9/08 11:37:2211:06:18 Building the Titanic E , the White Star Line had ordered its new ships from the shipyard of Harland and Wolff in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The design and construction skills of the yard were outstanding, and the workforce took great pride in the many famous ships they built. Construction of the Titanic began on March 31, 1909, and work progressed at a furious speed from then on. Every day, the yard reverberated to the sound of heavy THRIVING WORKFORCE The usual workforce of Harland and Wolff, which machinery and incessant hammering. First the keel plates numbered about 6,000 people, more than doubled were positioned. Then, once the framework was in place, in size to cope with the construction and fitting out of both the Titanic and its sister ship, the Olympic. the beams and deck plates were installed and the steel The shipbuilder was the biggest single employer in hull plates, some of them 30 ft (9 m) long, were fixed Belfast, and its workforce lived in the maze of together by more than 3 million rivets.